Boston Red Sox defeat Seattle Mariners, 5-3

BOSTON—Felix Hernandez kept the Boston Red Sox from making a big jump in the playoff race.

Seattle's ace became the third youngest pitcher since 1952 to reach 1,000 strikeouts, pitched 7 1-3 strong innings and led the Mariners to a 4-2 win and a split of their day-night doubleheader Wednesday.

Boston won the opener 5-3 behind Josh Beckett, and a sweep, on a night when the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays lost, would have cut its deficit from 6 to 4 1/2 games again...

BOSTON—Josh Beckett rebounded from a rough stretch and the Boston Red Sox broke a scoreless tie with four runs in the sixth inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 in the first game of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday.

Beckett (4-3) allowed one hit in six innings -- an infield single off his glove by Ichiro Suzuki leading off the game -- before giving up three runs in the seventh on homers by Russell Branyan and Casey Kotchman.

Not long after the gates opened last night and the hardy souls filed into Fenway Park for the second game of the doubleheader, word came that there had been a pitching change. Instead of a matchup between Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester — two of the best baseball has to offer — the fans would see Hernandez face off against Tim Wakefield. The knuckleballer was making his first start in more than a month after Daisuke Matsuzaka’s back soreness led to a change in the Boston ro...